Chapter 1. I Picked Up a Child
There was someone collapsed in front of my house.
To be precise—a child.
“A kid…?”
I blinked in confusion, having stepped outside early in the morning to go grocery shopping. But in the next moment, I gasped in shock.
“Gasp! A child! It really is a child!”
A tiny little child was lying in front of my house, looking half-dead and utterly tattered!
I immediately threw aside the basket I was carrying and rushed over to the child.
I gently tried to lift them up, but the child remained motionless.
When I brought my hand to their nose, I could just barely feel a faint breath.
“Thank goodness…”
Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, I scooped the child up in my arms.
After bringing them into the house, I carefully checked their condition.
Their jet-black hair was matted with dried blood in several places, and their tiny face was bruised and blotchy.
Their clothes—if they could even be called that—were ragged and torn in several areas, revealing wounds underneath.
“This is insane… What kind of child gets injuries like this?”
I was at a loss for words at the sight of the horrific wounds covering the child’s small body.
Without delay, I began channeling my healing magic.
With a refreshing scent of water, a bluish light surrounded the child several times before gradually sinking into them.
Once I saw the color return to the child’s face, I finally let out a breath of relief.
“Ha… If I hadn’t been nearby when you collapsed, what would’ve happened to you…”
The external injuries were this severe—how bad must the internal damage have been?
For all I knew, their organs might have been on the verge of failure.
External wounds could be treated, but internal injuries were a different story—even renowned shamans struggled to deal with them.
The only thing capable of fully healing internal damage in a short time was the healing magic possessed by the Water Spirit.
And I was the only Spirit Master in this world contracted with the Water Spirit.
“This really is divine luck… nothing short of a miracle…”
Now that the tension was ebbing away, I mumbled to myself while gently washing the child with water magic. Then, I paused.
Come to think of it, this child looked a bit like someone.
Curly black hair that reached the waist, fair and clean skin that appeared once the bruises and grime were gone…
Long lashes, dainty red lips…
As I mulled over who it might be, a face I had long buried in my memory briefly floated to the surface.
Arkes de Serenia—the shadowy villain in the fantasy novel “The Tyrant Emperor Slaughters the Villains.”
His face also had curly black hair just like this child.
But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t find a logical connection between the man who’d just returned from five years of war and this injured child.
For a moment, the thought that this could be his child sent my heart plummeting—but reason quickly presented evidence to the contrary.
In the past, Arkes had suffered severe injuries when his father, driven mad with jealousy over his mother’s lover, set fire to their mansion. Ever since, he had harbored deep hatred toward mistresses.
And I’d never heard anything about Arkes getting married, so this child couldn’t possibly be his.
Besides, Arkes was an only child. The Serenia family, which had risen from a ducal house to a grand ducal one about ten years ago, had very few collateral relatives.
Especially none around this child’s age—six or seven—from the Serenia line.
Surely… this child couldn’t be Arkes himself, right?
“Maybe some distant relative I don’t know about?”
I scratched my chin and tried thinking it through, but nothing plausible came to mind—not enough to make me slap my knee in enlightenment.
With a sigh, I gave up thinking about the villain.
‘Like I’d even have the guts to face him again… I ran away to Count Hyla’s territory to avoid that very man, and here I am speculating about him…’
I swept back my chestnut-brown hair and muttered under my breath.
“But seriously, what’s this child’s story?”
Why was a kid—one who looked like they walked straight out of a novel—lying so badly hurt in front of my house?
‘…If I’m not careful, I could end up entangled in something dangerous.’
Still, I couldn’t just throw the child out—not when I didn’t even know their name or when they weren’t conscious.
Not because I’m some charitable saint or philanthropist.
It’s just… I know exactly what it feels like to be abandoned in a strange world overnight.
‘I also opened my eyes one day and found myself in a completely unfamiliar world.’
I didn’t want this child to go through what I had felt back then.
“….”
Suddenly, I remembered the first time I opened my eyes in this world.
It was a day like any other.
I had turned on my phone as usual to read “The Tyrant Emperor,” and opened the novel platform app.
But something was different that day—a notice was posted where the latest update should’ve been.
A notice?
A bad feeling began to crawl up my spine, but I couldn’t not click it.
With trembling hands, I opened the post.
[Dear readers, hello. I’m the author of “The Tyrant Emperor Slaughters the Villains.” First, I want to apologize to those of you waiting for the next chapter. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to place The Tyrant Emperor on indefinite hiatus…]
“Wha… why is it on hiatus…?”
It was the only joy that had kept me going through my job-hunting struggles.
My precious, beloved favorite character had just begun their long-awaited, blood-boiling revenge arc!
They hadn’t even taken their first real step yet, and now this?!
“No way…”
That day, I drank.
Sorrowful, resentful, and bitter, I drank.
It was during the pandemic, so I couldn’t even meet my friends. I just downed strong soju alone.
Then I got a rejection message from one of the companies I’d applied to—and that only made me cry harder as I swallowed the bitter liquor.
I don’t quite remember how I fell asleep.
But it was probably the best sleep I’ve ever had in my life.
That is… until I realized the next day that I had reincarnated into The Tyrant Emperor as an insignificant background character.
